Earlier this year
Tomoki Kameda (42-4, 23) [亀田和毅] earned himself an IBF Featherweight world title shot, after avenging a 2023 loss to South African
Lerato Dlamini (20-3, 11). Just 2 weeks prior to Kameda’s win we saw one of the KO of the Year contenders, as
Angelo Leo (25-1, 12) shocked the division and ripped the IBF title from Luis Alberto Lopez in 10 rounds, making "El Venado" pay for his defensive flaws.
In recent days Leo has confirmed that there is now a date planned for the bout, and revealed a previous date for the bout has had to be cancelled.
Speaking to Skywalker Boxing Media, Leo explained that the original date for the contest was February 11th, but it will now take place the following month, on March 22nd, with the bout being held in Japan.
At the time of writing no venue has been mentioned, though the expectation is that it will be held on a 3150 Promoted show, with Abema streaming the event, and given that Kameda will want to have all the support he can get behind him, it would make sense for a venue in Osaka to be selected. However with the Haru Basho taking place in Osaka, at the EDION Arena Osaka, between March 9th and March 22nd, it would seem like the venue in Osaka, most associated with boxing, is going to be unavailable. Notably Kameda’s last bout, his win over Dlamini, took place in the Yamato Arena, which is in Osaka prefecture, whilst the Sumiyoshi Ward Center, which hosted the recent IBF Bantamweight title defense by
Ryosuke Nishida (10-0, 2) [西田凌佑], would also be a potential option.
Leo, enjoying his second reign as a world champion, previously held the WBO Super Bantamweight title, though lost that in his first defense, to Stephon Fulton, so he will be hoping for a more notable reign here. Notably this will be his first fight outside of North America, and his first bout outside of the US since 2016, a year that saw him fight thrice in Mexico.
For Kameda the bout serves as a chance to enhance his legacy, which has included a reign as the WBO Bantamweight champion and the WBC "interim" Super Bantamweight champion. It also gives him a chance to end a 13 year wait for a Japanese Featherweight world champion, with Japan not having had a Featherweight champion since Hozumi Hasegawa lost the WBC title to Jhonny Gonzalez back in April 2011. Since then many have tried, with Satoshi Hosno, twice, Kenichi Yamaguchi, Shoji Kimura, Hiroshige Osawa, Shun Kubo,
Satoshi Shimizu and
Reiya Abe, with all coming up short. A loss, is also likely to be the final world title shot for one of the fighting Kameda brothers, given Koki and Daiki have long been retired, and Tomoki is now 33. A win however could open the doors to a mega fight in 2025 or 2026 with Japanese mega star
Naoya Inoue (28-0, 25) [井上尚弥], if and when Inoue moves to Featherweight.
Notably despite Japan’s dry streak at 126lbs, the country has given us a number of Featherweight world champions over the years, with
Shozo Saijo, Kuniaki Shibata, Takashi Koshimoto, Jorge Linares (who was promoted by and fighting out of Japan at the time with a JBC license), Takahiro Ao and Hozumi Hasegawa all holding world title belts in the division. Notably however there was a 34 year period, between Shibata and Koshimoto holding belts in the division, and Japanese fans will want to avoid that type of break happening again.
